August 2017

Yes, Windows Phone is dead. Here's whyOctober 9, 2017

computerworld.com - To the surprise of few, if any, a Microsoft executive has confirmed the inevitable: The Windows Phone is effectively dead.
While the company will continue to support existing iterations, Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Windows, spelled out in a series of tweets why it has no plans to release new versions of phone hardware or the Windows Mobile OS.
When asked by a user whether it is "time to leave Windows Mobile platform," Belfiore tweeted back, "Depends who you are. Many companies still deploy to their employees and we will support them!"

macrumors.com - Blackberry announced its latest crack at an all-screen smartphone during the GITEX Technology Week in Dubai on Sunday. The Motion is the company's third Android phone to ditch the keyboard following the release of the DTEK50 and DTEK60 in 2016. Blackberry also released the KEYone earlier this year, but that device includes a keyboard below the touchscreen.
The Motion's 5.5-inch LCD display and Snapdragon 625 system-on-a-chip is powered by a large 4,000mAh battery (the iPhone 8 Plus has a 2,675mAh battery), which Blackberry hopes will appeal to business users looking for all-day battery life. Like all of the company's branded handsets these days, the Motion is actually made by Chinese company TCL Communication.

pcworld.com - Windows phones are really, truly dead. This weekend, Microsoft's VP of operating systems confirmed the writing on the wall. "Of course we'll continue to support the platform [with] bug fixes, security updates, etc.," Joe Belfiore wrote on Twitter, in response to a conversation sparked by a user asking whether it's time to move on from the Windows Mobile platform. "But building new [features and hardware] aren't the focus."
It's the first time a senior Microsoft employee has said that flat-out, but it's not the first time one has been so blunt about Microsoft's mobile hardware prospects. "If you wanted to reach a lot of phone customers, Windows Phone isn't the way to do it," Windows chief Terry Myerson told the Verge in 2016, while essentially putting Windows Phones on hold for the year. That hiatus now appears more permanent.

cnet.com - Google's new Pixel phones, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, are ready to square off against the iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and LG V30.
The smaller-sized Pixel 2 has a 5-inch OLED screen, while the larger Pixel 2 XL comes with a 6-inch display. These two Android Oreo phones are Google's high-end devices for the leadup into 2018, and so far, we like what we see.
In some ways, the Pixel 2 phones buck today's biggest trends. They don't have super-thin bezels and dual cameras like the competition (but Google says it's tech's so good, it only needs one camera anyway). In other ways, the Pixel 2s fit right in with the latest crazes, by adding water resistance and showing off an uncommon extra -- in this case, squeezable sides. They also shake off the headphone jack, a divisive move that upsets plenty of people.

money.cnn.com - Google has pulled the curtain off a whole collection of new gadgets.
The company revealed on Wednesday its latest hardware products at a press event in San Francisco, including the Pixel 2 smartphone, futuristic headphones and two new smart speakers. It included a number of nods to Apple, including killing the headphone jack on its Pixel phones.
Tech companies such as Apple and Google tend to announce their newest products this time of year, ahead of the holiday shopping season. This year's big tech trends include smart speakers, home security, and of course, smartphones.